Phenol is a widely used chemical intermediate. Two major uses are phenolic resins and bisphenol A. Currently, phenol is produced primarily using the cumene process. Additional technologies such as toluene oxidation, benzene sulfonation/hydrolysis, benzene chlorination/hydrolysis and cyclohexane oxidation/dehydrogenation processes are also available, although currently they are not as economically competitive as the cumene process. While the cumene process does use oxygen to convert cumene to cumene hydroperoxide, it does have the disadvantage of producing a mole of by-product acetone for each mole of phenol produced. None of the other technologies noted above use air or oxygen to directly oxidize benzene to phenol. The direct oxidation of benzene using air or oxygen is more desirable than using other more expensive oxidants like hydrogen peroxide and would also result in less by-product make.